SAN ANTONIO — Despite running second in the race for Republican delegates, Rick Santorum is not out of the race.

He’ll be fighting on, and told roughly 1,000 USAA employees that Texas would be crucial to his eventual nomination.

The state’s primary is set for May 29 because of legal disputes over election maps.

“This race will not be over when Texas comes around,” he said to a packed hall. “You’ll have the opportunity here, in the state of Texas, to speak very loudly about what kind of leader you want in this country.”

USAA’s political action committee invites all presidential candidates to address its members. Mitt Romney is scheduled next Thursday.

Santorum spoke for about 45 minutes, hammering President Barack Obama’s health care law and ridiculing efforts to increase “green” sources of energy.

“Obamacare” — and working to repeal it — is the reason he got into the race, he said. Obama’s health care plan, “makes every single American dependent on government for your health and your life. They say they’re giving you more rights, but they’re not, they’re making you more dependent.”

Santorum suggested health savings account as a way to keep individual control over health care.

He took a handful of questions from the audience, including one about what he would do to increase green energy options in the country.

Suggesting that the country has 163 years worth of oil, 300 years worth of coal and 200 years of natural gas in the ground, Santorum criticized the idea of energy from wind or algae.

“We need to take advantage of the resources we have,” he said.

Acknowledging that drilling can be risky, he added, “We need the economic benefit.”

After his speech, Santorum took questions from the media. He disputed “the media’s numbers” regarding delegate math that shows how difficult it will be for him to catch up to Romney.

“We put out our own numbers out, numbers we think are much more accurate,” he said. Most recent reports count 563 delegates for Romney and 263 for Santorum. The nominee must gather 1,144 delegates.

Santorum, whose grandfather was an immigrant, said immigrants make the country more vibrant. “But we need to enforce our laws, and they need to respect us enough to respect our laws,” he said.

He said he supported the GOP-controlled state Legislature’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood, which has resulted in the loss of federal funding for the Women’s Health Program.

Santorum said he would win the nomination based on ideas, his record and his vision. Romney, he said, is not a true conservative and cannot win the general election by outspending Obama.